Combined Unit Plan Assessment and Evaluation - 2007

Each SOE criteria has been met, though some of these lessons needs some filling in. .- fogleman Dec 30, 2007 Be sure to read the the lesson-by-lesson feedback at the bottom of this page when you begin adding to these lessons..

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Unit Name: Moles and Stochiometry
Author: Steve C.
Evaluator: Jay

This assessment is a combination of three different forms. The first is meant to provide feedback on the degree that the unit plan has incorporated the main ideas about science teaching stressed in EDC 430 this semester. The second is the URI School of Education Rubric that is used across all the teaching methods courses to make sure that the Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards (RIBTs) are being addressed. The third component is a summary of my feedback for each of your unit plan components. NOTE: All criteria on the SOE Rubric must score a 3 or above in order for you to begin student teaching. Please feel free to revise your unit plan based on this feedback, and send me an email explaining your revisions.

Completeness and Organization

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
1. Is the unit plan organized in a way that makes sense?	01/(01)
2. Are all the components present? (e.g. Purpose, Concept Map or Outline, 10 Day Lesson Sequence, 3 Long Lessons, Rationale citing how students learn, Assessment strategy.)	05/(12)	Missing concept map, at least two additional lesson plans, and assessment example.
3. Is the writing clear, engaging, proofread, formatted, etc.	.5/ (01)	Should re-read front page of unit plan in order to refine language.

Content

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
4. Are the standards unpacked to indicate subtopics? Student preconceptions?	01/(02)	Subtopics are listed, but not expanded upon in order to explain what will be taught.
5. Does each lesson include learning performances, i.e. statements about what students will be able to do at the end of the lesson?	01/(02)	Each lesson's objectives do not address a wide range of Bloom's taxonomy.
6. Do the plans have students doing something every day? Do students experience phenomena related to the topic?	1.5/ (02)	Be sure to tie all activities to main chemistry concepts, e.g. how does massing paperclips pertain to using "moles?"
7. Do laboratory activities include sufficient time/instruction for students to do/learn about science practices?	(01)

Assessment

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments**
8. Do the long lesson plans include questions that allow for formative assessment?	01/(02)	Lessons should include questions that you will ask students.
9. Are students assessed at a variety of cognitive levels?	01/(02)	A variety of different assessment opportunties is necessary.

Overall impression

10. What will students love (or at least enjoy) about this unit?

11. What might be added to make this unit more engaging?

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SOE Unit Plan Rubric

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Score: 4 Evidence/ Comments:

Plan unpacks GSEs related to chemistry, and addresses fundamental topic in high school chemistry.

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Score: 3 Evidence/ Comments:

Some activities provide vivid experiences without explaining how they will be connected to key concepts. For example: Paperclip and golf ball activities are not explicitly linked to moles in written plans.

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Score: 3: Evidence/ Comments:

Lessons provide activities, but do not always activate students prior knowledge that might be relevant.

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Score: 3 Evidence/ Comments:

Working definitions of all concepts should be included in the lesson plans. Worksheet keys imply students' understanding and the types of calculations should they be able to do, but this needs to be explained in more detail.

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Score: 3: Evidence/Comments:

The activities will engage students, each introduction includes questions that are meant activate students' prior knowledge and curiosity.

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Score 3: Evidence/Comments:

Lessons provide a variety of experiences including individual and group work, lab work, etc. No specific accommodation strategies are cited.

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Score: 3 Evidence/Comments:

Though no information technology is used, physical objects that serve as analogies to atomic phenomena are used to help students understand chemical concepts..

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Score 3: Evidence/Comments:

Instructional materials such as worksheets are present and there is guidance in the lessons on what representations of key concepts students will "take away" from lessons in the student agendas. Key definitions, notes, etc, should be added to the lessons.

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Score: 4 Evidence/Comments

Opportunities for students to apply concepts to solve problems and explain phenomena are provided.

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Score: 3: Evidence/Comments:

An assessment plan as well as descriptions of daily assessments are provided. There is no description of how assessment feedback will be provided to students.

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Score: 3 Evidence/Comments:

Writing is clear, though often too brief (not enough detail in lessons) and vague (specific questions/definitions not present).

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Detailed Feedback:

Purpose

• Students should learn about moles and answer a variety of questions about moles.
• You should extend this purpose explaining why you think these concepts are important, and indicate the types of experiences your unit provides for students to understand these concepts.
• You've used the word "assimilate" when I think you mean "compares and connects."

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R2FB - My Summary of Changes

• More questions that students should be able to answer after the unit have been added.
• More information about what ideas are addressed in specific lessons has been aded.

R2FB - Follow Up Suggestions

• You still need to explain why this topic is important for chemistry students and for people in general. Imagine you were explaining to a parent why this unit is in your course. What would you say?

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R3FB - Changes

• None

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Assessment Plan

• What do you mean by "formative" assessment?
• Instead of saying "you can do this or that, describe what YOU will do." These are your plans.
• What do you mean by "clarification on the misconception?"
• You description of your summative assessment brings to mind several questions that you do not answer:
  • Why are you concerned about "points" that are either "easy" or "hard?" Aren't you trying to assess students' understanding?
  • Why are "short answer" items more important than the other types of items? Can't you create these items so that they address different levels of Bloom's taxonomy?
  • What will your "short answer" questions entail? Will students have to write paragraphs or do application problems?

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R2FB - My Summary of Your Changes

• What you mean by formative assessment was clarified.
• How your summative assessment's design relates to Bloom's taxonomy was expanded.

R2FB - Follow Up Suggestions

• Nice to see thinking about the relative difficulty of the different types of test items.
• Do you see an inconsistency in your desire to make the MC items both "low stress" and have them address common misconceptions? My students found my MC items extremely stressful because they saw them as "tricky."
• Are your short answer items actually application problems? If so, you should make that more clear.

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R3 FB - Changes

• None

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Rationale

• Nice job identifying the learning principles that guided your planning.
• Interesting perspective on the importance of teacher communities. How will this influence your planning in the future? Will you seek out what the other chemistry teachers are doing in your school?

Learning Goals

• The subtopics and misconceptions are nicely organized. It would be helpful if you explained what you think is important to teach about each topic, e.g. what definition/distinctions will you teach about molar mass?
• Did you research misconceptions on the site linked to URITK? If so, you should cite what you found out.
• As I read your second learning goal page, I can't figure out how/why it is different from your original one. Both pages start with the same standard, so why couldn't they be combined?
• This feedback is consistent with what I said earlier in the course.

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R2FB - My Summary of Changes

• Added more bullets to teach category.

R2FB - Follow Up Suggestions

• You still have not explained what you mean by each bulleted item in the three .

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R3 FB - Changes

• None

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Lesson Sequence

• You should summarize each lesson on this front page.

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R2FB - My Summary of Changes

• None in this area

R2FB - Follow Up Suggestions

• Based on what is shown on your unit cover page, it looks like your unit only includes four lessons. I think your lessons are planned for 90 minute blocks, I think you need to make this clear. One way to do this on your cover page is by doing what I asked you to do earlier and briefly describe the different activities included in each lesson next to the link for each lesson.

R3 FB - Changes

• Added a description of lesson introduction sequence.

R3 FB - Suggestions

• Use the description of your lesson opening to revise your openings in each lesson.
• In your session sequence, provide an overview, a three sentence description of each lesson. The three sentences might include (1) Given the unit's main topic, what subtopics are being addressed? (2) What will students do on that day? (3) What will students produce on that day?

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L01: Comparing Apples to Oranges

• Overview
  • Please expand on your description of the lesson. What do you mean by "several macroscopic experiences?" Explain what you mean by "assimilation."
• Objectives
• Introducing the Lesson
  • Can you explain what you want students to say to begin the lesson? You should also describe the unit, its goals, and the different activities that students will engage in. Finally, by the end of this introduction, students should know what they will be doing this day, why they are doing it, and their goal product for the day will be.
• Instructional Activities
  • As I said earlier, when you are planning for a 90 minute block, it is best to think of it in terms of a series of shorter activities. You should organize this section as such. What is the goal of you massing the two types of balls? What will you say to make your point clear to students?
  • What will you say to transition to them doing the paper clip lab? What question will they be trying to answer? What will they be doing (go over procedures); Why are they doing this activity?
  • How will you group students for this activity? Why?
  • What will you be doing/saying/asking while students are doing the activity?
  • After they do the activity and you bring them back together, what will you say to help them see the significance of the activity to chemistry?
  • Will you introduce the term "moles" today? (It is mentioned in your objectives.)
• Concluding the lesson
  • You should ask Ss questions so that they see the connections between the different activities. Describe those questions, and your target answers, here.
  • Is there a homework assignment that will allow them to use the idea of "moles" somehow? It would be best to have a set of questions that explicitly connected their in-class activities with what you want them to know about moles?
• Assessment
  • You should explain how you will assess students' comments and work in this section.

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R2FB - My Summary of Your Changes

• Deleted learning performance describing application of paper clip counting to atoms.
• Added time estimates for each activity.
• Added topic and goal to introduction for students.
• Description of each group's task extended and grouping explained.
• Assessment questions added.

R2FB - Follow Up Suggestions

• You still aren't introducing the unit as a whole.
• The only thing still missing from your introduction is an explanation of why students need to learn what you want them to. Omitting this makes me think you do not feel that this is important, so I ask you to put yourself in your students' place. When a teacher assigns a task without explaining why it is important, what is your reaction? Don't you do the task but dismiss it as "busy work?" Isn't your inference that the task really has no reason except that it is the "next topic?" Will your students do the task anyway? Yes, because they want something to do! Will they try to make sense of the task by relating it to your overall topic? No! You didn't, so why should they?
• I'm glad you're thinking about what students will take away from this lesson. Isn't it sometimes useful to know an average mass of an irregular object, e.g. a potato chip? Aren't you arguing that the "average" mass of an atom is different because all atoms of the same element are identical? (except for isotopes... will that be addressed?)

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R3FB - Changes

• Added agenda handout

R3FB - Follow Up Suggestions

• State objectives on agenda. Be sure that your lesson focuses on atomic mass instead of "quantifying things."
• Include this agenda in your lesson plan and write it on the board/overhead, unless you have another reason for handing it out to students.
• State learning performances as actions that you can assess. How are you planning to assess "Students will understand that there are different ways to quantify mass, volume,...?"

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L02 - Mole-Mass and Mole-Volume Relationships

• Overview
  • The overview should explain what students will learn, experience, and provide a justification for what you have decided in include. What you have here sound like instructional objectives.
• Objectives
  • Your objectives are in your overview section, I think, and I am not convinced that these objectives signify an understanding of the mole concept. From your experience, can students just "go through the motions" to complete these objectives without understanding the mole concept. For example, will students be able to explain how two moles of H and one mole of O can combine to create 1 mole of water? Will they be able to point to that reaction to explain why mass is not a good way to keep accounts of chemical reactions?
• Introducing the Lesson
  • What would you say if a student asked you why Avogadro's number is important? You should refine your statement beforehand since expressing ambiguity (e.g. "you know...") will create confusion and mistrust. Go ahead and write out working definitions of these terms, preferably consistent with their text.
• Instructional Activities
  • You've moved directly into calculation without explaining the mole or showing why it is such a convenient tool. What message are you sending if you ask them to calculate many examples without talking about the concept first?
  • Your worksheet gives no guidance about how you want them to do these unit conversions. Do you have preferred format, for example, do you want them to show their units? You skipped a line on the worksheet between each problem, does that imply they are to show their calculations on the sheet? Why not compress the separation between problems so that you only have to copy one page?
  • THESE CONVERSIONS ARE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT FOR STUDENTS WITHOUT INCLUDING THE "MOLE" CONCEPT. YOU NEED TO MODEL WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO!
  • Given the article you read on collaboration, and your concern for a few students do the group' work, how will you group the students? What guidelines will you put in place to insure that everyone engages?
  • You should include those examples in your lesson plan. You should also attach the KEY for your worksheet.
• Concluding the Lesson
  • I would say that having student groups present their work is an activity in itself. If they work in groups of 3, then you will have 9 groups, and 5 minutes per group is 45 minutes. Is this how you were thinking about it? If not, you should add your own detail into your plans.
  • The question you need to ask is why the other students will pay attention and check each other's work. If they think they know how to do a particular problem, they may talk through the activity and not bother to engage.
  • Idea: Are there a small number of "types" of these problems? If so, could you ask students to categorize these problems in the least number of categories, and then conclude by having students offer "rules" that help solve particular problem "types?"
• Assessment
  • You should make sure that your assessment strategies tie back to you objectives. How will you assess students' work? Will you collect it an grade it, will you assess their group's work? Will you ask them additional questions?
• Rationale
  • You will probably have to collect their work and grade it because (1) if you don't collect it, they may not bother to do it next time, and (2) not everyone will get a chance to share their insights during the presentations and you need to find out who is clueless.
  • I agree that the presentations are a good way to get a more complete picture of their thinking process, but you will have to establish strict time limits in order to give every group a chance.

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R2FB - My Summary of Your Changes

• Added lesson overview
• Increased level of detail of introductory discussion.
• Added description of instructional sequence.
• Added assessment rationale.

R2FB - Follow Up Suggestions

• Do you really mean "Define a mole" to be your LAST objective? If not, then rearrange you objectives so that they correspond to the order of your activities.
• The level of detail about your instructional actions (what you will show, say, ask) is still not here, and it will need to be added for you to feel confident/competent during this lesson. If you choose not to add this level of detail, I hope you will remember what it feels like to be unprepared and incoherent and make the appropriate additions to your future plans. '
• It might be useful for you to review my earlier feedback.
• If you look back on the Blumenfeld collaboration article, you might rethink your grouping strategy and save you and your students from some discomfort/heart ache.

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R3FB - Changes

• Learning performances made more specific.
• Agenda Handout added.

R3FB - Suggestions

• Introduce lesson by creating a need to know about Avogadro's number.

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L03 - Roll Mole Analogy

• Much of the structural feedback that I provided in the previous lessons applies, here, e.g. overview should be a paragraph, objectives should be performance statements that you can assess, etc.
• Overview
• Objectives
• Introduction
  • Should clearly preview activities, state topic and day's goal.
• Instruction
  • How will your procedure relate to the procedure described on the website you reference? Where is your version of the worksheet?
• Conclusion
• Assessment
  • As I understand what you're saying, you will give them partial rolls of pennies to weigh? How will that assess an activity aimed at helping students understand how chemists count in moles?
• Rationale
  • Have you refined your understanding of inquiry further. As I indicated in my first feedback on this lesson, I am not sure how this activity reinforces/extends students' understanding of how scientists perform investigations.

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R3FB - Changes

• Agenda added.

R3FB - Suggestions

• Need to add your version of this worksheet.

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L04 - Lego Activity

• Idea is good, but lesson is too sparse to be assessed. How will you structure their investigations with legos? Will you give them "reactions" to "balance?" How will you make the analogy between logos of different colors and atoms clear on the second day. Look back at the teacher's roll-mole analyogy worksheet for one idea for establishing a similar type of analogy.

*IMPORTANT: you need to get some legos and go through the steps you think students should do, and look carefully for problems with the analogy, possible misinterpretations, etc.

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R3FB - Changes

• Added agenda doc
• Added Worksheet and Key

R3FB - Suggestions

• Students will have difficulty connecting the two day's activities unless you connect them on day 1 and day 2. Modify the agenda to explain that they are learning to "balance" an equation using Legos.

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